HIV/AIDS STUDY-Early Treatment ‘Makes Virus 96% Less Infectious’!

HIV carriers who start treatment before the virus can ravage their immune systems are 96 per cent less likely to infect their partner, a landmark new study has found.

The findings are a breakthrough in combating the spread of HIV. In theory, if every person carrying the virus was treated at the earliest opportunity, the spread of Aids could almost be stopped in its tracks.

Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S.-based National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which funded the study, said: ‘These findings strongly indicate that treating an individual sooner rather than later can reduce the risk of HIV transmission to a sex partner. ‘Current medical guidelines suggest starting treatment when a sufferer’s CD4 T-cell count – a measure of the strength of the immune system – drops to between 350 to 500 cells per cubic millimetre of blood.

But the new study suggests that immediate treatment can make carriers 27 times less likely to pass on the virus. Dr Fauci said: ‘Now you are talking not only about the benefit to the individual, but also about the benefit for preventing transmission to others.’

In 2005 researchers enrolled 1,763 couples in 13 sites in Botswana, Brazil, India, Kenya, Malawi, South Africa, Thailand, the U.S. and Zimbabwe. Each couple had one partner who was infected with the virus and another who was not.

Half of the infected partners began treatment with a combination of three HIV drugs. The other HIV-infected partners’ treatment was delayed until they showed signs of an Aids-related illness or their T-cell count fell to 250.

An interim analysis of the study, which was due to continue until 2015, showed that of the 28 infections between partners, 27 had come from those in the delayed treatment group.

Researchers halted the study and everyone with the virus was offered treatment. The majority of the volunteers – 97 per cent – were heterosexual couples, making it impossible to say whether the findings also apply to gay couples.

Michel Sidibé, executive director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/Aids, said: ‘This breakthrough is a serious game changer and will drive the prevention revolution forward. ‘It makes HIV treatment a new priority prevention option.’ However, the need for treatment currently far outstrips resources. Of 33.3m people carrying the virus, 14.6m are going untreated. In poorer regions, only a third of those who need treatment are getting it.

And treatment may make a person less likely to transmit HIV, but it cannot eliminate the risk. CDC Director Dr Thomas R Frieden warned: ‘HIV-positive people cannot assume they are not infectious simply because they are already on treatment medications.’

Posted by Admin on July 25, 2011. Filed under HEALTH. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.